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| Mumbai : An Introduction |
| Bombay, a beautiful natural harbour, known as 'the Gateway of India' is a narrow island, reclaimed from the original seven, that juts out into the Arabian Sea. Over the years
(specially the years of the Raj), causeways came up. More and more land was reclaimed as the city grew in the late years of the nineteenth century. |
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Gateway of India |
| Today Bombay rests on a single land mass, connected to the mainland. The origins of the name Bombay are lost to history. Some say it is
derived from 'Mumba aai', goddess of the 'koli' fishermen who were the original inhabitants of the city. Others hold, the Portuguese named it Bom Bahia ('good bay'), when they came to the area in Mughal times. Later
still, the area came into British hands as part of the dowry of Charles II, when he married Princess Catherine of Portugal. Bombay has recently reverted to its former name, Mumbai. |
| Physical and Human Geography Area: City - , Metropolitan -
Population: Greater Bombay 9,900,000 and Metropoliton Region 12,500,000
Language Spoken: Marathi (Vernacular), Hindi, English, and Urdu. |
| Mumbai : History |
| The seven islands that now form Mumbai were first home to the Koli fisherfolk whose shanties still occupy parts of the city shoreline today. The islands were ruled by a succession of Hindu dynasties, invaded by Muslims in the 14th century and then ceded to Portugal by the Sultan of Gujarat in 1534. The Portuguese did little to develop them before the major island of the group was included in Catherine of Braganza's dowry when she married England's Charles II in 1661. The British Government took possession of all seven islands in 1665 but leased them three years later to the East India Company for a meagre annual rent of 10.00.
Bombay's fort was built in the 1720s, and soon after land reclamation projects began the century-long process of joining the seven islands into a single land mass. Although Bombay grew steadily during the 18th century, it remained isolated from its hinterland until the British defeated the Marathas and annexed substantial portions of Western India in 1818. Growth was spurred by the arrival of steam ships and the construction of the first railway in Asia from Bombay to Thana in 1853. Cotton mills were built in the city the following year, and the American Civil War - which temporarily dried up Britain's supply of cotton - sparked Bombay's cotton boom. The fort walls were dismantled in 1864 and the city embarked on a major building spree as it sought to construct a civic townscape commensurate with its new found wealth. The opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 and the massive expansion of Bombay's docks cemented the city's future as India's primary port. |
| Mumbai : Places of Interest |
| Stock Exchange of Bombay : The Stock Exchange at Bombay was established in 1875 as "The Native Share and Stockbrokers Association" which has evolved over the decades in to its present status as the premier Stock Exchange in India. It is one of the oldest in Asia having preceded even the Tokyo Stock Exchange which was founded in 1878. In the early days the business was conducted under the shade of a banyan tree in front of the town hall. The tree can still be seen in the Horniman Circle Park. In 1850 the Companies Act was passed and that heralded the commencement of the joint stock companies in India. The American Civil War of 1860 helped Indians to establish brokerage houses in Bombay. The leading broker at the time, Premchand Roychand, assisted in framing conventions, ground rules and procedures for trading which are respected even now. He was the first Indian broker who could speak and write in fluent English. The exchange was established with 318 members with a fee of Re. 1/-. This fee has gradually increased over the years and today it is a over a crore. |
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| Kanheri caves : These are Buddhist caves or monasteries where monks practiced their austerities around the first century AD. And unlike the artistic extravagance of Elephanta, they are spartan and bare. Situated in the heart of Mumbai's National Park, the complex contains more than a hundred tiny cells cut into the flank of a hill, each fitted with a stone plinth that evidently served as a bed. There is also a congregation hall supported by huge stone pillars that contains the dagoba, a kind of Buddhist shrine. And if you pick your way up the hill you will find channels and cisterns that are remnants of an ancient water system that channeled rainwater into huge urns. In fact, Kanheri is probably the only clue to the rise and fall of Buddhism in Western India. |
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| Wales Museum : Barely a stone's throw from the Gateway of India is the Prince of Wales Museum, a magnificent, but somewhat strange structure, built in a confluence of Gothic and Moorish styles, and crowned by a sparkling white dome. It boasts a good collection of ancient Indus Valley artifacts dating back to 2000 BC, plus some priceless Tibetan and Nepali Art. There is an entire gallery devoted to Buddhist tankha scrolls and another to Tibetan bronzes, but the chief attraction here is the collection of over 2000 miniature paintings from the various art schools of India. Next to the Museum is the Bombay Natural History Society, which has an extensive collection of local flora and fauna. |
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Distance Chart |
Agra - 1197 Km
Ahmedabad - 545 Km
Amritsar - 1843 Km
Bangalore - 998 Km
Bhopal - 779 Km
Calcutta - 1987 Km
Chennai - 1329 Km
Coimbatore - 1265 Km
Cuttack - 1482 Km
New Delhi - 1407 Km
Hubli - 593 Km
Hyderabad - 711 Km
Indore - 593 Km
Lucknow - 1365 Km
Shimla - 1742 Km
Srinagar - 2275 Km
Thane - 43 Km
Tirupati- 1228 Km
Vishakhapatnam - 1361 Km
and more
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